Call to Perez the playoffs' worst-case scenario
NEW YORK -- Willie Randolph made the announcement after the game: "Oliver Perez is pitching, and because I like him."
Thus it becomes official: Perez, whose 3-13 record and 6.55 ERA makes him statistically the worst pitcher ever to draw a postseason start, will start the game the Mets need to advance to the World Series.
Randolph's options were limited. He could have opted for Game 3 starter Steve Trachsel, who retired just two out of the dozen batters he faced and may have lost face with teammates when he departed after taking a liner off the thigh, or Darren Oliver, who pitched six scoreless innings in relief of Trachsel but hasn't started a game all year.
Perez went 5 2/3 innings in Game 4 and gave up three home runs, but emerged the winner in a 12-5 Mets blowout.
"He's done a nice job for us since he's been here, very similar to Johnny Maine in a lot of ways," Randolph said of Perez, a trading deadline pickup from the Pirates. ``He's throwing the ball well. Last time he threw the ball real well."
Perez said he was told after Game 4 he might get the ball if the series went seven. He was told before the Mets' 4-2 win last night that it was his start.
"I'm happy to have the opportunity," he said. ``I'm feeling good."
``He's the pulse of our club," general manager Walt Jocketty said of the littlest Cardinal yesterday, shortly before Eckstein popped out of the visitors' clubhouse, breezed past a television camera crew apologetically, then slipped behind a blue curtain to warm up, saying, ``I'm good to go."
Eckstein was diagnosed with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder after the Cardinals' 4-2 win Tuesday. He said he hurt the shoulder on the second of two diving plays he made in the first inning, one in which he backhanded a ball in the hole hit by Paul Lo Duca but landed awkwardly. Then, in the eighth inning, Cardinals trainers paid another visit, after Eckstein, attempting a suicide squeeze, was struck on the three fingers exposed above the bat. A bruise, Jocketty said, which was seconded by Eckstein.
Eckstein's offensive production is also hurting. He went 0 for 4 in the Cardinals' loss last night, making him .184 (7 for 38) in the postseason. He has scored just four runs in 10 games, his only extra-base hit was a startling home run off Perez in Game 4, and he has just two RBIs. With runners in scoring position, he is hitless in eight at-bats.
But he had two hits in both Game 4 and Game 5, including a leadoff single off Tom Glavine Tuesday and a bloop single off Glavine in the fifth that led to the go-ahead run in the Cardinals' win.
``I would say over the years I've had a whole bunch of really tough guys who competed very tough and got banged up and never backed off," said La Russa. ``But when you consider his stature, I don't know if I've ever been around a guy tougher than David. He gets blasted with foul balls, hit balls, hit by pitches, sliding into second base, diving. He's fearless. Toughest guy I've ever been around."
Remember the great shortstop-go-round in 2004, when Orlando Cabrera, who had come in the Nomar Garciaparra trade, left the Red Sox for the Angels, the Cardinals lost Edgar Renteria as a free agent to the Sox, and Eckstein left the Angels for the Cardinals? Jocketty was asked if he ever felt he got the short end of the stick.
``Well, he was the shortest," Jocketty said wryly of the 5-foot-7-inch Eckstein.
Eckstein completed the second year of a three-year, $10.25 million deal, one that paid him $3.5 million this season and $4.5 million in 2007. He played just 123 games because of an oblique strain and hamstring injury, but batted .292 with 68 runs and a career-low 23 RBIs. He made just six errors and was named an All-Star for the second time because of an injury to Jose Reyes.
``We always liked his talent," Jocketty said. ``We liked his enthusiasm, the way he went about playing the game. The manager loves him. His type of player."
